What Are Membership Rewards Points and How Do I Earn Them?

American Express offers a rewards program called Membership Rewards. Most purchases with cards earning Membership Rewards (MR) points will earn 1 point for each $1 spent. A few of the cards offer bonus categories for either everyday spending or specifically for someone traveling, like on airfare.

MR points can be redeemed for gift cards, like 7,000 MR for a $50 gift card (0.7 cents per points or 0.7 cpp), as statement credits (usually a 0.6 cpp value), pay with points at certain retailers or online at amextravel.com (0.6-1 cpp), or transfer MR to another Amex rewards/payment program called Plenti. The last option I haven’t mentioned yet is transferring Membership Rewards points to airline or hotel partners, and this method is generally the way to get the best value, over 1 cent/point.

I have compiled a short list of credit and charge cards which earn Member Ship Rewards points. Clicking the name of the card will take you to a blog post (if there is one yet) explaining the card and benefits. After the name is the typical bonus associated with the card offered publicly: